Yoga, Modern and Historical—
A 5,000-Year Journey
In order to fully understand how a complete yoga practice reveals our personal bliss, we need to explore the history of yoga. Today’s yoga practice doesn’t look much like its five-thousand-year-old ancestor, and the future of yoga needs to look a bit different than it does right now if it is to yield the powerful results yoga is capable of delivering.
Though yoga is touted as an ancient practice, very little of what we do today was actually being done five thousand years ago. As modern yogis, we are a far cry from the ancient roots of the practice. How does the history of yoga influence the practice we call yoga today? What exactly were ancient yogis doing? We’ll explore these questions and examine further how we might push the boundaries to round out the modern yoga practice in a way that both honors its history and reveals our bliss.
Yoga’s History: How We Got Here
Though yoga is often touted as being extremely old, the reality is that it isn’t really possible to figure out exactly how old yoga is. It is difficult to precisely date its ancient origins. The oldest known spiritual texts, known as the Vedas, have been traced to around five thousand years ago. They were said to have been divined by meditating sages; that in their heightened states of awareness, the sages cosmically downloaded the source wisdom of Indian culture. The books that comprise the Vedas are vast, mighty tomes that include everything from when to plant crops, to how to behave in society, as well as stories of the origins of the universe and rituals for common rites of passage. While modern-day yoga is perceived and practiced as a largely physical activity, the only trace of what we might recognize as yoga from the Vedas are fire ceremonies, mantra, and meditation.
The males of the Brahmin (priest) caste of India carried the religious and mystical traditions of India forward for millennia. While the early development of a rich mythological and ritual context for today’s yoga practice was present, ancient yoga was very different from its modern incarnation, which is a primarily physical practice perhaps peppered with a little spirituality and philosophy.
After the appearance of the Vedas, the philosophy of yoga developed along several different tracks. Then, around two thousand years ago, the sage Patanjali penned his revered work, Yoga Sutra. It is unknown whether it was popular in its day, but for those in our era it invaluably outlines the philosophical fabric of yoga in terse, easy-to-memorize phrases. At the time of Yoga Sutra’s writing, the term yoga had evolved from a reference to yoking or joining two oxen together (as it had been in the Vedas) to the practice of quieting the mind.
Patanjali makes the definition exceedingly clear: Yoga is the ceasing of fluctuations of thought. The methods to achieve a quiet mind are primarily practices of devotion, kind behavior, and meditation. While Patanjali does mention the term asana in Yoga Sutra, originally, this Sanskrit term meant simply the seat of the yogi’s meditation practice. It is only more recently that the meaning has evolved to include the extensive menu of physical postures we choose from in yoga classes today.
So, where did all this posture practice come from if it is not part of a five-thousand-year-old tradition? There is a record of some fifteen scant postures from a fourteenth-century text known as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, which many consider to be the oldest text describing the physical practices of yoga. With the emergence of hatha yoga, we were given methods for working with the body to gain greater access to spiritual pursuits. The practices of hatha yoga include knowledge of the chakras (subtle energy centers of the body) useful for correcting the energy channels of the body so that one’s circuitry is wired for bliss.
The term hatha is often translated as “sun and moon” though it is more accurately translated as “forceful.” Hatha yogis traditionally “forced” their way into bliss through practices that broke their attachment to the body. This, of course, differs greatly from the way we practice yoga today, with our focus on physical health and flexibility primarily through a variety of yoga postures. When most people say they practice yoga, more often than not they mean that they practice the modern physical form of yoga postures.
Originally, asana catalyzed the alignment with the soul rather than merely aligning the physical form. The popularity of the physical practice of postures has captivated the Western (particularly American) drive for health and fitness. While our physical form may need the strength and flexibility asana provides, if the focus is solely on the body, then we miss out on yoga’s greatest gift—its ability to connect us with our personal bliss. Historically, yoga’s primary practices are meditation, ritual, and mantra, not asana. Any work done around asana allowed the yogi to sit in meditation more comfortably for long periods of time.
Realistically, if yoga had arrived on Western soil solely as a meditation practice, it would not have gained nearly the popularity it has today. Many of us love physical fitness, health, outdoor activities, and strong bodies. And why not? Healthy bodies allow us to live longer, and the longer and more healthfully we live, the longer we participate in our own great adventure. Yoga’s popularity has skyrocketed in the last couple of decades, but the current focus only on the physical aspect of the practice represents an almost exclusive denial of anything spiritual. Modern yoga is largely stripped of its spiritual and mythical roots, and, as such, many miss its core ability to create an inroad to ultimate bliss.
Yoga’s long history has never been about glorifying the body, but rather it is about elevating the soul so that our experience in body and mind is glorious. By understanding yoga’s history, knowing its power, and adhering to the meaning and intention of yoga itself—creating the condition for personal bliss to arise—we develop a yoga practice that honors yoga’s roots and gives us wings. We all seek blissful connection. Yoga practice gives us access to it.
What is bliss? And what is yoga? Bliss and yoga are essentially synonymous. You experience bliss when you are most connected and yoga is the source of that connection. Interestingly, yoga is a term that describes both a practice and a goal. You cannot do yoga. Yoga is who you already are. We do practices that create the condition for yoga—for our inherent state of bliss—to arise. The process is the solution. The road to bliss itself is blissful! We understand this further by exploring the meaning and definition of yoga used throughout this book.
Defining Yoga: It’s Not What You Think
It is always a good idea when having a discussion about important matters to define terms so that everyone remains on the same page. This lesson comes straight from the Yoga Sutra. Patanjali understood, like all good teachers, that his audience would make assumptions about what certain words mean, so he was exceedingly clear with how he used them. For example, straight away in the second sutra of the book we find a precise definition of yoga:
Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah1
Yoga is steadiness in the field of the mind.
Patanjali’s definition of yoga is striking. He clearly states that yoga is a psychological state where the mind is calm, at rest, still. Yoga, strictly defined, is not bound by the condition of the body, but rather is a condition of the mind that has a greater effect on the totality of your being. When the mind is utterly at ease, the body is as well. We cannot feel physical stress without mental stress, and a mental calmness results in a complete state of relaxation. Our inner state reflects our outer state and vice versa, just as the old alchemical principle of “As above, so below” 2 illustrates—all things are connected and influence one another.
This is different from how many interpret the word “yoga.” Similar to the way that the brand name Kleenex® has become synonymous with facial tissue, yoga has nowadays become synonymous with asana. To reduce the meaning of yoga to a mere sixty-minute stretching and bending session at the local studio reduces what yoga is capable of doing for us. While asana practice is the modern trend, this book infuses the practice with a more traditional understanding of what yoga is … and re-envisions it so that it is a tool for connecting with your bliss.
Yoga is such a powerful and compelling state of mind that when it occurs you know yourself to be completely whole and perfect, essentially missing nothing. In such a state, you experience life fully. Yoga is connection—connection to self, soul, life, and the rest of the world.
But what about that other definition of yoga? The one with which nearly every yoga book begins: Yoga comes from the Sanskrit root, yuj, which means “to yoke” or “to unite.” Yoga as union indicates the union between atman (soul) and brahman (source). This union between soul and source is experienced beyond the chatter of the mind, just as Patanjali tells us that yoga occurs when the mind is still. Yoga essentially is a psychospiritual state. Our experience of spirituality is psychological. When we elevate our awareness, we access new levels of our psyche—the totality of our psychospiritual self. Every spiritual experience happens as a psychological event within the psyche.
Since our spirituality is experienced through our consciousness, this leads us to the question of the nature of consciousness. From where does it arise? What put it there? What is it? Psychologists (and even neuroscientists) have thus far failed to answer this question. It is a mystery. In mystery there is great power and freedom. Historically, when humans have longed for an answer to this mystery, the answers have come from mythological and spiritual traditions. These rich mythological traditions give us access to higher levels of consciousness, deeper connection, and wisdom beyond rational thought. Think of the priests and shamans who tap into a mysterious source to provide answers for those in need, or the miracles that occur through faith and belief. Not to mention the daily inspiration that comes from faith in something greater than oneself. Throughout human history, faith and belief have fueled access to spiritual connection, higher levels of consciousness, and integration with like-minded community.
Throughout history, when people had problems, crises, and personal challenges, they looked to their clergy members for counseling, their faith communities for support, and their belief systems for understanding. Nowadays, in the abandonment of faith and belief, we often look to psychologists to usher us through our personal challenges. However, there remains a deeper need for the psyche that is only satisfied through myth and spiritual practices. While psychology addresses healing the psyche, what it does not address is healing the schism of the soul. We need more than an analytical framework. As much as we favor analytical and rational thinking these days, what is being sacrificed here are the deeper parts of ourselves that yearn for something more, something bigger, something … mysterious.
Enter Yoga
No matter how much we presume to know about consciousness, the universe, and ourselves, there is always something mysterious that can only be experienced as the ultimate psychospiritual state. As we push the borders of our universe outward with our knowledge, the mystery continues to lie just beyond it. As we delve into the nature of consciousness and psychoanalyze ourselves, mysterious parts remain outside the grasp of knowledge, definition, and analysis. In addressing this mystery, human beings have turned to myth to come into accord with those parts of our universe and ourselves that cannot be known but are felt and experienced.
As we turn away from our modern-day religions for lack of faith, we need to turn inward to a functioning mythology that satisfies us on both a psychological and spiritual level. Enter yoga. In fact, at least twenty-one million Americans turn to yoga because there is an inkling that it has greater properties than increased flexibility, and 23 percent of Americans “believe in yoga not just as exercise but as a spiritual practice.” 3
Yoga studios are the new community centers of our day. Where people once communed on the weekends following their religious service, yogis are now throwing potlucks and Friday night sun-salutation marathons. Where once people sought spiritual counsel from their clergy members, many are seeking out their yoga teachers for advice on their everyday problems. And while yoga does foster this promise of personal bliss and happiness, right now, many people aren’t finding it from the modern-day practice as it presents itself. In the importation of yoga to the West, much has been lost in translation.
When people say, “I do a yoga practice,” it’s likely they engage in asana practice, rather than a daily immersion in their bliss. We glorify the physical, rather than the enormous personal benefits that yoga brings to us. While a re-examination of what yoga means to us as contemporary Western practitioners is a worthwhile pursuit, there is also much we need to add to the practice of yoga based on what we now understand about the psyche and about consciousness. Because we live in a unique time—a time when people deny or question their faith or belief—yoga needs to be not merely a physical practice, but a valid personal mythology that is capable of restoring a sense of deep connection to our source: yoga is a pathway to personal bliss.
1. Yoga Sutra 2.1. All Yoga Sutra references are my anglicized versions and translations of Patanjali’s Sanskrit text. To learn more about Yoga Sutra, I recommend: Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Yogaville, VA: Integral Yoga, 1999).
2. This remark comes from the Emerald Tablet, supposedly written by Hermes Trismegistus, its origins are unknown. It is considered to be a foundational alchemical text.
3. NCCIH, “9.5% of U.S. Adults (21 Million) Used Yoga,” National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Feb. 12, 2015. https://nccih.nih.gov/research/statistics/NHIS/2012/mind-body/yoga, and “Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths,” Pew Research Centers Religion Public Life Project RSS, Pew Research Center, Dec. 8, 2009. http://www.pewforum.org/2009/12/09/many-americans-mix-multiple-faiths/.